Clippers are playing "road games" instead of home games

[Kevin]

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/stor ... s-clippers

Warriors fans made Staples Center sound more like Oracle Arena on Tuesday night. They loudly cheered every made basket by Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, and chanted "M-V-P" when Curry was at the free throw line, causing several Clippers players to look up into the stands and shake their heads.

That's just sad. It's like the whole crowd became bandwagoners. smh

[Andrew]

It's unfortunate, but it makes sense. The Clippers have spent a lot of their time in Los Angeles dwelling in the NBA's basement, so while the fanbase they do have is incredibly dedicated, it doesn't quite compare to that of the Lakers, or the Bulls, both of whom have long enduring popularity that spans the country. After the last few years, the Heat are probably a similar case...at least for now. It's also understandable that the Warriors' fanbase is expanding this season, and if they live in California to begin with, then they don't exactly have to travel the breadth of the US to get to a game at Staples Center.

As far as bandwagoners go...well, everyone has to get on the bandwagon at some point, and generally speaking, that happens during a period when a team is successful and exciting to watch. There's nothing wrong with that - one generally becomes a fan of something when its quality draws us in - but proving yourself to be a fair weather fan, proclaiming a life long love of a team when you've never supported them before the season, jumping from team to team and declaring yourself the biggest fan each time...well, yes, that's certainly obnoxious, and poor form in sports fanaticism.

Again, it sucks for the Clippers, who deserve better having finally turned things around in recent years. But the Warriors have an enthusiastic fanbase who have a lot of cheer about right now, and they're understandably picking up new fans along the way. The only solution is for true Clippers fans to turn out in droves, and snatch up those tickets before fans of the visiting teams do.

[NovU]

I think Doc Rivers really did bad with the Clippers. All those acquired players by Doc shows he's not really 'analytic' minded. He goes after big name has-beens (& his son) but nothing came to fruition and we're looking at another wasted CP3's last couple good remaining year. Unfortunately LA fans don't seem to appreciate him either.

Speaking of bandwagon, I will make this clear that I am more than likely to switch my allegiance from the Heat once Wade retires. I don't really Arison, and Riley no more. I also didn't like shady individual that ripped off Mike Miller while he was here. Also some of the decision they've made. All in all, I don't feel that's my franchise despite rooting them for decade.

[mp3]

It's to be expected really with the Warriors being so close to the Clippers you will have a lot of fans making the trip to LA to watch while there team is winning.

Bucks had that every home game vs the Bulls in the 90's too.

[Kevin]

Speaking of bandwagon, I will make this clear that I am more than likely to switch my allegiance from the Heat once Wade retires

And they mock me of being a Lakers fan. How about Whiteside though? Do you think he'll stay with the Heat be their "franchise player"?

[NovU]

No, whether he stays or not he's not a franchise material. We already saw the best of Whiteside. He's not going to improve much but needs to find consistency. He can probably be something like DeAndre Jordan LITE if he can get his head straight.

[mp3]

It's funny when people say that we have "seen the best" of Whiteside and he won't get better as that was said about 3 years ago and then boom!

[NovU]

Who said that 3 years ago? I didn't.

[Lamrock]

I have to agree with Andrew. There are true Clippers fans, but I think a lot of people who attend their games are Lakers fans supporting the Clippers because they're the good LA team right now. The Warriors, being more popular and in-state naturally get the cheers. The casual fans who bought the tickets can root for whoever they want to as far as I'm concerned. Tbh the Clippers don't have to worry about this when they're playing the Wolves or even the Kings though.

[Patr1ck]

Clippers fans have always been bandwagon fans. They buy tickets when the Clips win, they don't when the Clips lose. Being in LA, I can tell you that any popular team and player has fans here, and that many of the Clippers tickets sales from history are from fans wanting to see the away team and/or it's players. The same thing happens at LA Dodger games, especially with SF Giants fans. Doc's quote from the espn article is right on, "I loved our crowd for the most part. I didn't like their crowd."

Game attendance vs winning % correlation since 2000-01
http://imgur.com/a/TPMjV

Clippers are 3rd.

[mp3]

Who said that 3 years ago? I didn't.

kings fans.

[Andrew]

Bucks had that every home game vs the Bulls in the 90's too.

Still a bit of an issue, apparently...those fans probably weren't thrilled with the outcome of yesterday's game.

[NovU]

Who said that 3 years ago? I didn't.

kings fans.

Really? At least I've never heard of them saying he wouldn't improve 3 years ago.

AFAIK they let go of him because he wasn't good at the time and he had attitude issues, then he got HURT BAD.




Here is the thing about Whiteside. He's NOT going to average 20 rebounds nor 6 blk for a season. We saw that stretch this year and that was Hassan at his best. The thing is he's not really a reliable shot creator nor got moves like Cousins. He's pretty much a catch & dunk guy and a blackhole that won't pass he once has the ball. To be called a franchise player, you probably want to be able to do more than dunk and rebound. Dwight was a franchise guy but we know Hassan's not going to be that good. He's 25 years old and is supposed to be at his peak age wise. Huge improvement? Forget it. What part of his game do you think he will have major upgrade? Fug you, tell me some reasonable analysis on his game and how he can improve.

We already now who he is and who he isn't. He's not going to be a franchise player by any standard.